Osteoporosis is a disease characterized by decreased bone density resulting from a higher rate of bone loss compared to bone formation, which increases the risk of fractures. Therefore, early detection of osteoporosis helps reduce the risk of fractures. Traditional methods for diagnosing knee osteoporosis are time-consuming and require specialized personnel. Machine learning has emerged as an effective tool for image analysis, we proposed in research the development of an intelligent system for detecting knee osteoporosis using X-ray images. The research included both binary classification and multi-classification to differentiate images into five main categories: normal, Doubtful, mild, moderate, and severe osteoporosis, using two separate datasets. We proposed a new feature extraction technique called Hybrid Multi-Modal Feature Fusion (HMMFF), which integrates traditional feature extraction techniques, such as GLCM, HOG, and ORB, with deep learning models, including YOLO11, VGG-16, and ResNet50. Feature selection was performed using the harmony search optimization algorithm, and the selected features were then fed into several machine learning classifiers for training, evaluation, and classification. Experiments showed that the XGBoost model achieved the best performance compared to the other models, with an accuracy rate of 94.5% in binary classification and 93.3% in multi-class classification. The results indicate that the application of the HMMFF technique contributed to the extraction of comprehensive and diverse features. Furthermore, the feature selection using harmony search optimization helped identify important and effective features, thereby increasing the accuracy of classification and diagnosis of osteoporosis and consequently reducing the risk of fractures.
M. M. Sobh et al., “Secondary osteoporosis and metabolic bone diseases,” J. Clin. Med., vol. 11, no. 9, p. 2382, 2022, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm11092382.
A. Aibar-Almazán, A. Voltes-Martínez, Y. Castellote-Caballero, D. F. Afanador-Restrepo, M. del C. Carcelén-Fraile, and E. López-Ruiz, “Current status of the diagnosis and management of osteoporosis,” Int. J. Mol. Sci., vol. 23, no. 16, p. 9465, 2022, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23169465.
Z. N. Al-Kateeb and D. B. Abdullah, “A Smart Architecture Leveraging Fog Computing Fusion and Ensemble Learning for Prediction of Gestational Diabetes,” Fusion: Practice & Applications, vol. 12, no. 2, 2023, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.54216/fpa.120206.
C.-H. Cheng, L.-R. Chen, and K.-H. Chen, “Osteoporosis due to hormone imbalance: an overview of the effects of estrogen deficiency and glucocorticoid overuse on bone turnover,” Int. J. Mol. Sci., vol. 23, no. 3, p. 1376, 2022, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23031376.
N. Salari et al., “The global prevalence of osteoporosis in the world: a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis,” J. Orthop. Surg. Res., vol. 16, pp. 1-20, 2021, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13018-021-02772-0.
L. Yousfi, L. Houam, A. Boukrouche, E. Lespessailles, F. Ros, and R. Jennane, “Texture analysis and genetic algorithms for osteoporosis diagnosis,” Int. J. Pattern Recognit. Artif. Intell., vol. 34, no. 05, p. 2057002, 2020, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218001420570025.
S. Lee, E. K. Choe, H. Y. Kang, J. W. Yoon, and H. S. Kim, “The exploration of feature extraction and machine learning for predicting bone density from simple spine X-ray images in a Korean population,” Skeletal Radiol., vol. 49, pp. 613-618, 2020, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00256-019-03342-6.
U. B. Abubakar, M. M. Boukar, S. Adeshina, and S. Dane, “Transfer learning model training time comparison for osteoporosis classification on knee radiograph of RGB and grayscale images,” WSEAS Trans. Electron., vol. 13, pp. 45-51, 2022, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.37394/232017.2022.13.7.
T. S. Yang, “Recognition and classification of knee osteoporosis and osteoarthritis severity using deep learning techniques,” Dublin, National College of Ireland, 2022, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1302/3114-220769.
T. Nakamoto, A. Taguchi, and N. Kakimoto, “Osteoporosis screening support system from panoramic radiographs using deep learning by convolutional neural network,” Dentomaxillofacial Radiol., vol. 51, no. 6, p. 20220135, 2022, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1259/dmfr.20220135.
U. B. Abubakar, M. M. Boukar, and S. Adeshina, “Evaluation of parameter fine-tuning with transfer learning for osteoporosis classification in knee radiograph,” Int. J. Adv. Comput. Sci. Appl., vol. 13, no. 8, 2022, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.14569/IJACSA.2022.0130829.
N. Sollmann et al., “Automated opportunistic osteoporosis screening in routine computed tomography of the spine: comparison with dedicated quantitative CT,” J. Bone Miner. Res., vol. 37, no. 7, pp. 1287-1296, 2020, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1002/jbmr.4575.
S. Kumar, P. Goswami, and S. Batra, “Enriched diagnosis of osteoporosis using deep learning models,” Int. J. Performability Eng., vol. 19, no. 12, p. 824, 2023, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.23940/IJPE.23.12.P7.824833.
S. M. Naguib, M. K. Saleh, H. M. Hamza, K. M. Hosny, and M. A. Kassem, “A new superfluity deep learning model for detecting knee osteoporosis and osteopenia in X-ray images,” Sci. Rep., vol. 14, no. 1, p. 25434, 2024, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-75549-0.
M. Shen, “Utilizing Deep Learning for Osteoporosis Diagnosis through Knee X-Ray Analysis,” in 2024 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Communication (ICAIC 2024), Atlantis Press, 2024, pp. 553-560, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-512-6_58.
T. Fernando, H. Gammulle, S. Denman, S. Sridharan, and C. Fookes, “Deep learning for medical anomaly detection-a survey,” ACM Comput. Surv., vol. 54, no. 7, pp. 1-37, 2021, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1145/3464423.
A. A. Torres-García, O. Mendoza-Montoya, M. Molinas, J. M. Antelis, L. A. Moctezuma, and T. Hernández-Del-Toro, “Pre-processing and feature extraction,” in Biosignal Processing and Classification Using Computational Learning and Intelligence, Elsevier, 2022, pp. 59-91, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-820125-1.00014-2.
L. K. Singh and K. Shrivastava, “An enhanced and efficient approach for feature selection for chronic human disease prediction: a breast cancer study,” Heliyon, vol. 10, no. 5, 2024, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e26799.
S. Aouat, I. Ait-Hammi, and I. Hamouchene, “A new approach for texture segmentation based on the Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix,” Multimed. Tools Appl., vol. 80, no. 16, pp. 24027-24052, 2021, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-021-10634-4.
I. Zine-dine, J. Riffi, K. El Fazazy, I. El Batteoui, M. A. Mahraz, and H. Tairi, “A review: Machine learning techniques of brain tumor classification and segmentation,” Mach. Graph. Vis., vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 31-55, 2025, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.22630/mgv.2025.34.3.2.
F. Siddiqui, S. Zafar, S. Khan, and N. Iftekhar, “Computer vision analysis of BRIEF and ORB feature detection algorithms,” in International Conference on Computing in Engineering & Technology, Springer, 2022, pp. 425-433, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-2719-5_40.
D. Theng and K. K. Bhoyar, “Feature selection techniques for machine learning: a survey of more than two decades of research,” Knowl. Inf. Syst., vol. 66, no. 3, pp. 1575-1637, 2024, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10115-023-02010-5.
D. Effrosynidis and A. Arampatzis, “An evaluation of feature selection methods for environmental data,” Ecol. Inform., vol. 61, p. 101224, 2021, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2021.101224.
C. Peraza, O. Castillo, P. Melin, J. R. Castro, J. H. Yoon, and Z. W. Geem, “A type-3 fuzzy parameter adjustment in harmony search for the parameterization of fuzzy controllers,” Int. J. Fuzzy Syst., vol. 25, no. 6, pp. 2281-2294, 2023, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40815-023-01499-w.
O. Lopez-Rincon, O. Starostenko, and A. Lopez-Rincon, “Algorithmic music generation by harmony recombination with genetic algorithm,” J. Intell. Fuzzy Syst., vol. 42, no. 5, pp. 4411-4423, 2022, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.3233/JIFS-219231.
F. Makhmudov, D. Kilichev, and Y. Im Cho, “An application for solving minimization problems using the Harmony search algorithm,” SoftwareX, vol. 27, p. 101783, 2024, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.softx.2024.101783.
A. E. Yıldırım, “Optimization of fuel cost in electric power systems using harmony search algorithm,” Int. J. Eng. Res. Dev., vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 531-544, 2021, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.29137/umagd.814025.
E. Uray, S. Carbas, Z. W. Geem, and S. Kim, “Parameters optimization of Taguchi method integrated hybrid harmony search algorithm for engineering design problems,” Mathematics, vol. 10, no. 3, p. 327, 2022, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.3390/math10030327.
J. Gholami, K. K. A. Ghany, and H. M. Zawbaa, “A novel global harmony search algorithm for solving numerical optimizations,” Soft Comput., vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 2837-2849, 2021, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00500-020-05341-5.
R. Diallo, C. Edalo, and O. O. Awe, “Machine learning evaluation of imbalanced health data: a comparative analysis of balanced accuracy, MCC, and F1 score,” in Practical Statistical Learning and Data Science Methods: Case Studies from LISA 2020 Global Network, USA, Springer, 2024, pp. 283-312, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-72215-8_12.